Anthem

Hey Zoo Freaks, pull up a stool and let that needle drop on something heavy and free. The Zoo Crew is spinning “Anthem” from Rush’s Fly By Night, and this one hits like a straight stretch of highway after a long night of open-road freedom. It is the kind of track that makes a biker nod under the helmet and a freeform rocker lean in closer to the speakers. The song opens the 1975 album that marked the real arrival of the classic lineup, and it still carries that first-spark energy decades later.

Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee had the riff cooking while John Rutsey was still behind the kit. Rutsey was a solid rock-and-roll drummer, but the odd 7/8 time in the intro was not his bag. He preferred the straight-ahead stuff, so the piece sat on the shelf. When Neil Peart showed up for the audition in 1974, they jammed on that same opening figure. Geddy has said that as soon as Peart started playing, he and Alex looked at each other and knew they had found their guy. Peart later recalled the first day they played together and noted that the basis of “Anthem” was one of the things they jammed on, the whole already greater than the parts. That moment was the birth of the song and the birth of the band we know.

Peart named the track and wrote the lyrics after Ayn Rand’s 1938 novella of the same title. He was deep into those ideas of individual will and self-reliance at the time. Lines like “Live for yourself, there’s no one else more worth living for” and the jab at “begging hands and bleeding hearts” come straight from that spirit. The music itself was already written; Peart supplied the words and the title. Geddy has talked about the leap it took for him and Alex to accept those lyrics. They were more intense than anything the earlier lineup had done, and the two of them had to feel them to sing them. Once they were on the road and sharing books, the understanding grew. The song also introduced the kind of asymmetrical meter and interlocking bass-and-guitar lines that would become Rush signatures.

There is a nice full-circle story here. In 1977 the band formed their own Canadian label and called it Anthem Records, taken directly from this track. The first release carried catalogue number ANS-001. Alex has said the song was the signature for the whole Fly By Night album because they were trying to be individual, doing something different from everyone else. Original handwritten lyric sheets for both “Anthem” and the title track exist with alternate lines that never made the final recording. Peart has also mentioned that the first day jam showed the chemistry right away.

That brings us to how these three got rolling in the first place. Back in the summer of 1968 in the Willowdale neighborhood of Toronto, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer John Rutsey were looking for a name and a gig. Rutsey’s older brother Bill suggested something short and direct: Rush. It stuck. Jeff Jones started on bass and vocals, but he was gone almost immediately. Lifeson brought in his school friend Gary Weinrib, whose grandmother’s Yiddish accent turned “Gary” into “Geddy,” and Geddy Lee stepped in. They played their first paid show in the basement of an Anglican church at a coffeehouse called the Coff-In, covering Hendrix, Cream, and the Yardbirds. For years they worked the Toronto bars and high-school dances, influenced by Led Zeppelin and Cream, until they cut a single and then self-released their debut album on their own Moon Records in 1974. A Cleveland station, WMMS, started playing “Working Man,” Mercury picked it up, and the American tour was set. Rutsey left for health and musical reasons, Peart joined just in time, and Fly By Night became the first statement of the new trio.

You can still hear that young fire in “Anthem.” The riff is muscular, the drums fill every available space without crowding, and Geddy’s voice rides high over the whole thing. It is individualist rock with the volume up and the road ahead clear. For more on the band, the official site is right here at Rush, where the Fly By Night page still lists the song with its credits and lyrics. Follow along on Facebook, Instagram, and X for the latest from the crew.

Deep diggers will want the fan archives. Power Windows is the long-running encyclopedia with liner notes, alternate lyrics, and interview quotes on this very album. Cygnus-X1 holds the big tribute collection of discographies, photos, and history. The daily news and stories live at Rush is a Band. On Facebook the Clockwork Angels group keeps thousands of fans talking setlists, memories, and rare photos.

That is the kind of music that belongs on freeform airwaves. We are spinning it right now for every Zoo Freak who still believes in doing it your own way, on your own terms, with the volume where it belongs. Come ride with us at THE ZOO and keep the needle moving.